MUMBAI: Air India on Wednesday issued a new policy document pertaining to the subsidized travel benefit granted to its retired employees. The new policy, the number of “passages” granted to retired employees has been cut down to a blanket four “passages” per year. Despite the reduction, the issuance of the policy brought much relief to the airline’s retired employees as it ended months of uncertainty over the status of this particular retirement benefit. With the airline privatised, there were concerns that the carrier might do away with this particular benefit.
The Air India Retired Employees Leisure Travel policy will come into effect on March 1. The document states the next revision date is March 2025. Capt Manoj Hathi, retired Air India director (operations) said: “We are glad that Air India has given due weightage to the decades of our loyal service to the company.”
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Under the said travel benefit, retired employee or his/her nominee gets a certain number of “passage”, or a free ticket. Free air ticket means the employee only pays for the tax component on the air ticket. The travel is on a “subject-to-load” basis, the employees will be allowed to travel only if vacant seats are available at the time of “flight closure” , that is, after the check-in counter is closed. A return trip, a direct one or one that involves a transit stop, counts as one passage. For instance: to travel to Chicago from Hyderabad, the retired employee would need to transit via Delhi. The entire return journey, Hyderabad-Delhi-Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad will be considered as one passage. If only one-way travel is booked, that counts as one passage as well.
There are a number of other rules for ticket booking under this policy. For instance: only those who retired as CEO & MD, executive vice president, senior vice president, functional director, CMD, joint managing director, etc can make a booking across any available class. Once at the airport, they are eligible to upgraded to first class, subject to seat availability. Those who retired as executive directors, general managers, joint general managers, deputy general managers and commanders can book only in economy class. But an upgrade to business class is offered, if there are vacant seats in the said higher class after flight closing. For all other category of employees, booking can be done only in economy class and there will be no upgrade, under the new policy.
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The airline has a code of conduct in place for those availing these benefits. “Retired employees and their nominees are the brand ambassadors of Air India, representing the company’s image…. and therefore are expected to always allow customers to go first at check-in and boarding. Give sufficient time for check-in, and report to the boarding gate early so as not to delay the flight. Dress appropriately while travelling. Refrain from using Air India lounge facility. Assist colleagues when there is a need; help reduce wastage and protect company property and equipment. Be polite, humble and maintain a low profile,” the policy states. Retired employees and nominees are prohibited from making any monetary gains out of the tickets under the said policy for retired employees. “This includes a prohibition on using these tickets for any commercial or remunerated purpose. Retired employees are eligible for Employee Leisure Travel benefit only if they maintain a clean track record throughout their service,” it adds.
Since the passage is granted only when vacant seats are available on a given flight, during peak season, retired employees often do not get to travel on their scheduled date and have to return the following days in hope of finding vacant seats. If there is more than one claimant for the vacant seat, the order of priority for claiming the vacant seats begins with current employees travelling on duty, followed by current employees travelling on leisure and then retired employees’ leisure travel. Among the retired employees, priority is assigned based on career level at the time of retirement. For instance, among pilots, the first priority is afforded to the senior commander, followed by commander, Captain, first officer and lastly to junior first officer. The new policy has expanded the definition of retired employees’ “nominee’’ to now also include daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, sibling’s spouses, spouse’s siblings etc. The policy, like the earlier one, doesn’t make a distinction between the retired employee and his/her nominee when it comes to seat allocation.
Capt Hathi said: “In my opinion, the retiree should get at least two seats on a confirmed basis in a year. The seats for retired employee nominees such as siblings can be subject to load basis. It is sometimes a nightmare trying to get a seat at an outstation. One has to go back and forth to the airport a few times, pay exorbitant rates to stay at hotels before one can get a seat to travel back home,” said Capt Hathi. “Airline could also use the retired employee travel policy to generate revenue when the economy-class in a flight is overbooked. At such times, airlines upgrade economy class passengers to the vacant business class seats. The airline could instead offer to upgrade the retired employees travelling in economy class (who are eligible to be upgraded to business class) and charge them 10-20 % of economy class fare for the upgrade,” he added.
The free passage benefit comes with a deadline. “All travel must be completed by the end of the leisure travel year. No carry forward of the passage is allowed..” the policy states. “Allotment of quota for the next passage year shall be done 60 days prior to the start of the next passage year to enable retired employees to plan their travel in advance,” it added. The retired employees’ travel benefit will not be claimed as a matter of right, but will be sanctioned at the discretion of the company, the policy states. .
For months together, Air India retired employees were unsure about the travel policy that the privatised airline will adopt. On February 05, the All India Airlines Retired Personnel Association had written to the Air India CEO about “uncertainty surrounding free/rebated air travel” for the airline’s retired employees. “The continuation of modification of this vital benefit which enabled us to maintain family connections and access essential travel, remains unclear. The uncertainty has caused significant hardship and anxiety, particularly for those with urgent travel needs or family members residing abroad,” the letter said, alluding to the problems employees were facing towards 2023 end when there was no communication from the company on the travel policy. The benefit is open to employees who have completed a minimum of 15 years of service with the airline before retirement.
